Note: This is the 3rd adventure in the Alice Crown series. Please see the previous two stories before starting this one :)
1) The Long Brown Coat
2) True Color
(Both can be found here at )
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Chapter 1 - Over the Rainbow
The Doctor twisted around, took me by the arm and jerked me back to my feet. "Sorry about that. Are you alright?"
I nodded, "What's happening?"
"Doctor," Jack called as the TARDIS rocked again. "We're landing."
"What? Where?" The Doctor hurried over to Jack as I held onto the console to keep myself upright.
Jack shrugged as all of the noise and the shaking stopped. The TARDIS engine faded and everything went quiet in the room. The three of us looked at each other in turn. No one spoke for a moment.
"Are we back home?" I said tripping as I got back up again.
"I doubt it," Jack said. "The readings aren't telling of anything conclusive."
The Doctor slapped a bit of the controls with the back of his hand.
"Does that help?" I asked innocently.
"Of course it does," he grumbled.
"We could be anywhere," Jack said.
"Well," the Doctor said. "The environment outside is stable," he reasoned. He caught my eye and smiled. All three of us made our way to the ramp and walked to the door.
"Are you sure we landed somewhere?" I said as I poked my head out of the door. I looked up at Jack who appeared just as baffled as I was.
We could see nothing but a vast space of white as far as the eye could see – like we were staring out at an endless sheet of paper.
The Doctor poked his head out next to mine, "Well that's not very interesting."
"Where's the light coming from?" I said. The entire space was white, above, below and to both sides and we could see it clearly as though it was reflecting light from somewhere.
"Good question," Jack replied.
"It's not the Void, there'd be no light." The Doctor mumbled.
"That's comforting," Jack said with a roll of his eyes.
"Sorry, but what's the Void?"
"It is as it sounds," the Doctor explained. "It's the space in between realities – absolute nothingness."
I furrowed my brow as I tried to imagine it. But I couldn't wrap my brain around it. "If it's nothing, right? Then there wouldn't be any space would there? Space is something isn't it?"
"Well, I'm done," Jack said.
"The TARDIS landed – it's landed. We're on a solid surface with an atmosphere, gravity but – " the Doctor shook his head and ran his hand over his chin.
He was right to be frustrated. I looked down and saw the base of the TARDIS. Beyond that was more whiteness. From what I saw we could've been floating in the middle of a white ball of paper for all that we knew.
My back was tiring of being hunched over and peeking out of the small door. "Well, if it's a solid surface…" I said, looking at the boys.
"There's only one way to find out," the Doctor said, taking my hand in his. I found Jack's hand and the three of us held on tightly to each other as the Doctor counted. "One…two…three – "
We stepped out in a three person chain into the endless white space. There was something beneath my feet but that's all I had time to realize. The light grew brighter around us until I couldn't see Jack of the Doctor anymore. I didn't feel their touch, though I tried reaching out to them for any sign that they were there. But I fell.
The white surface fell away and I dropped, falling forever and ever until something stopped me with a bump.
Thankfully I landed on something soft. My eyes adjusted themselves to the light grays of the room I was in. Even my skin looked a dull shade of gray. I'd fallen onto a bed in a strange old fashioned bedroom. It looked like the bedroom was part of an old farmhouse of some kind. Definitely from Earth though. The room itself was a shambles. Paper and clutter everywhere like a storm had blown through it.
My clothes had changed as well. I was in a simple grey dress that was over a white blouse – white socks and black shoes were on my feet as well. I picked at the skirt with my fingers. It definitely felt real. As I looked down, however, a brown mass of hair fell over my shoulder. I put my hands up to my head. My short crop was gone, replaced by long brown hair that was braided into two long plaits at the sides of my head.
I stumbled out of the room calling for Doctor and Jack but no answer came to me. I was alone in this seemingly dull world. The entire house looked so drab, made of blacks and grays as though it hadn't seen sunshine since it had been built. I had to lean on one wall as I walked through a short hallway. Along with being made of a dull color, the house seemed tilted to one side. I finally reached the front door and rushed over to open it so maybe, whatever was outside would help me make sense of the situation.
The door creaked open and I gasped. The colors outside were vibrant, bright, and lively. I stepped onto a road made of brick and examined my hands and clothes again. My skin was back to its original color and my dress was a blue and white checked pattern and my socks weren't white, they were blue to match the dress.
Everything had suddenly become dreadfully familiar. There was a bark somewhere around the vicinity of my ankles and I looked down. A small scraggly looking dog came padding up to me from the house and stood right next to my feet. I stared at it and it stared right back with big brown eyes.
It couldn't be – it couldn't possibly be! My brain was telling my eyes repeatedly that what I was seeing wasn't real. But I wasn't hallucinating, I wasn't asleep. I had somehow fallen into this world – well, actually an exact replica of the world I was already very familiar with.
I stepped farther away from the house, the little dog following me when I noticed the road was made of yellow brick. I groaned as my suspicions were confirmed. "Doctor," I called out. "Doctor? Captain Jack?" I turned completely around, hoping to see a face I knew but instead I saw the red and white striped legs protruding from beneath the house. The ruby slippers were still on the feet. "Oh, please," I squeaked softly. "Answer me."
I walked down the road, rounded a corner and finally saw someone else. A woman with long red curly hair wearing a soft pink dress and a crown on the top of her head smiled as she saw me.
"Welcome, Dorothy," she said in a silky voice.
"That is not my name," I said angrily as I marched up to her. "Where am I?"
"But you already know that, my dear. This is Munchkin Land."
I folded my arms in front of me, "Where are they then?"
"Where are who, dear?"
"The Munchkins,"
She only smiled sappily and waved he long glittering stick she held in her lily white hand. "You have done it!" she exclaimed. "You have dropped your house on the Wicked Witch of the East – "
"That's not my house!" I yelled, pointing my finger at the dilapidated structure lying on top of those legs wearing those sad looking socks. "Where am I and what have you done with my friends?"
Her eyes flashed but she continued smiling, "You must continue the story, Dorothy," her voice had turned icy.
"The story?"
A loud bang pierced my ears followed by a puff of smoke and flame. Sure enough and right on cue the Wicked Witch of the West appeared with a hooked nose and green skin wearing black from head to foot. She crept up to me as I rolled my eyes.
"Who killed my sister?" she said in a dark nasal voice. She pointed a finger at me, "Was it – "
"Yes! It was bloody me!" I bellowed at her. "I swear if neither of you tell me what's going on and what you did to my friends I'll find a six story mansion and drop it on the both of you!"
The Good Witch gave a simpering giggle and waved her magic wand. I glanced at my feet and there they were, the sparkling ruby slippers.
"Those are my slippers," she said with buggy eyes. "Give them back to me. Give them back!"
I gaped at her. My words had no effect on either of them. It was as though I was in the middle of a prerecorded scene.
"Look, I just want to find the Doctor," I said, more calmly.
"No Doctor will save you my pretty after what I plan to do to you," she advanced on me, her lips thinning over her yellow teeth. Though I knew she was only a character in a story, she was still rather frightening and for all I knew she could very well hurt me.
"Oh rubbish!" Glinda (I'd just remembered her name) said. "You have no power here. Be gone before somebody drops a house on you too!"
The dialogue was verbatim. It was exactly as I remembered the film aside from the absence of the Munchkins. The Wicked Witch glared at the both of us and backed away saying her departing line, "I'll get you my pretty. And you're little dog too!" With the classic witch's cackle she vanished. The dog, Toto, was still yipping at her even after she'd gone.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on as I brushed a braid of hair off of my neck. Where could they have gotten to? I was trying not to be more worried for myself than for them but I was obviously the one that was more out of her element than the Doctor or Jack ever seemed to be. I turned to the Good Witch of the North, "If it's all the same to you and if you're not going to help me I already know the way," I said, pointing to the yellow brick road.
"Don't stray from the story," she said. It sounded more like a warning than a threat.
"It's not like you're giving me a choice," I snapped back at her.
She nodded, looking satisfied and with a wave of her magic stick began to fade away.
I sighed and looked around the colorful land. I was alone again – well, almost alone. I looked down at the little dog, "I guess it's just you and me, mate."
We started walking. The ruby slippers were pretty but rather stiff as I came to discover. As my mind wandered I began to worry about where the Doctor and Jack could have ended up. What if they were stuck in stories all their own as I was and couldn't get out? If that was true, what happens to us when we reach the end of our stories? Or, even more terrifying, what if I'm never allowed to leave and I have to repeat this over and over again?
I shuddered at the thought as I was progressing out of the Munchkinless Munchkin Land. The tiny houses became less and less abundant. With every step was the gentle jingling at my heels. Dorothy's faithful Toto kept up his pace with mine and followed me as though he actually belonged to me. I'd never been a dog person, Mum was allergic to them anyway. But I couldn't exactly push him away. After all, he was all I had at the moment.
